Equitable Life Assurance Society

You almost certainly remember how the Equitable Life Assurance Society was on the brink of closure five years or so ago. The company’s sale fell through, and it exists now only to serve existing customers. Looking for life assurance? Go elsewhere...

To say the least, things haven’t been good in the past few years for the Equitable Life Assurance Society. In 2000, the company received a very high-profile legal assault over the status of its guaranteed returns for with-profits pension funds. The name was permanently blackened, and when, in an attempt to revive the viability of the funds, the Equitable Life Assurance Society was put up for sale, there were no buyers. In fact, many other big-name assurers were in the same boat and keeping a very low profile. The Board executed a rescue strategy, and the company remains solvent and committed to its existing customers.

However, it’s not allowed to take on any new business, and therefore the Equitable Life Assurance Society website is really only of interest to existing policyholders (or rubberneckers engaging in schadenfreude…). There’s a real “end of the world” feel to the site, as though everyone’s just going through the motions- you’ll find Equitable’s funds and past performance charts, and a calculator that will tell you whether your pension fund will actually come up to scratch. But otherwise, the Equitable Life Assurance Society is a dying brand, and if you want to buy, go elsewhere.